Continuous infrared furnaces and ovens are widely used for in a variety of industries. Materials that may be treated in a continuous infrared furnace may include painted or coated materials that require specific curing conditions, components that require heat melt solder (i.e. ball grid arrays), pre-heating metals, circuit boards, silicon wafers treated through zone-melt processes, materials for use in photovoltaic cells requiring conductive paste to be fused thereto, and any other material that one can conceive of that is can benefit from controlled infrared radiation.
An infrared furnace provided with the ability to convey material through the furnace may be highly useful because heating and cooling zones provided throughout the furnace can provide any desired temperature profile in a consistent manner to a high volume of material to be treated. The high volume fabrication and treatment of heat processed or heat annealed devices entails many opportunities and challenges.